Coronovirus leading to a cultural shift for our elderly in the UK


The UK Care Guide carried out a snap survey to see what impact the UK coronavirus crisis has had on attitudes towards long term elderly care.

Since the start of the crisis, one obvious change we saw on our site was the drop, in the region of 40%, of people looking for care homes.
Whilst the reasons for this may have seen obvious, particularly with all the news around how the coronavirus was impacting care homes, we were keen to see what longer-term impact this may have for those that were still searching.

What did the survey show

William Jackson, chief engagement office at UK Care Guide said:
“As you would expect, the coronavirus has had a huge impact on how people view care homes with 93% of respondents saying the coronavirus has put them off currently using a home for a loved one and 63% saying they are actively delaying using a care home. Coupling this with the significant numbers that had stopped searching completely, it would indicate that a significant number of people are actively avoiding care homes if they can.

Longer-term we are also potentially seeing a behavioural and cultural shift in the UK with 53% saying they are going to look at avoiding care homes completely.

In addition of those likely to avoid a care home, 34% of people will look at moving their parents into their own home rather than a care home.

It will be interesting to see how this develops over time and whether our attitudes start to mirror those in eastern cultures where parents live with their children.

The government don’t appear to have covered themselves in glory with 97% of people saying that the government has not done enough to protect care home residents. This is clearly a topic that will continue to run”

Some of the key stats coming out of our survey, which included 1,565 respondents, are:

● 87% of people are actively delaying moving a loved one into a care home
● 93% of people are put off using care homes for a loved one is because of the coronavirus
● 53% of people are currently not looking at using a care home in the longer term
● 34% are going to look to move their loved ones in with them rather than a care home
● 97% of people do not think the government has done enough to protect care home residents

You can see the survey here – https://ukcareguide.co.uk/what-impact-is-the-coronavirus-having-on-long-term-care-and-care-homes/

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